Public Universities have undertaken initiative to close the evening courses in order to give their full concentration to mainstream academic activities during the day.
The public university authorities working for the closure of evening courses as per the 13-point directive issued by University Grant Commission (UGC) on Wednesday.
Contacted, Dhaka University Vice Chancellor Dr Md Akhtaruzzaman told Bangladesh Post, “In order to strengthen the mainstream education, we have taken initiative to stop evening courses.”
He also said, “On May 2019, we formed a committee as per the directive of Chancellor President Abdul Hamid in this regard, to recommend over how to shut down the evening courses for good.”
“The committee is sorting out what courses are to be stopped at first, and how the rest of the courses are to be dealt with,” he added.
Mentionable, though all the public universities are running evening courses, Dhaka University, Jahangirnagar University, Rajshahi University, Jagannath University and Chittagong University administer the highest number of courses.
A day after the UGC directive, the authorities of Jagannath University (JnU) and Comilla University (CoU) on Thursday announced not to enroll any new students for evening courses until further order.
Students who have already enrolled at different evening courses, however, would be allowed to complete the ongoing programmes.
Public relations, information and publication office of JnU issued a press release in this regard while Cumilla University Registrar Prof Dr Abu Taher confirmed the development.
It has been known that the mainstream academic activities have been drastically hampered as some teachers are remaining busy in taking class at evening courses. The students alleged that teachers of evening courses do not concentrate their main courses as they give extra time in evening courses.
Sources said, “Session jam is higher in those departments where authorities are running evening courses. Mainstream students have been facing at least 1 year to 2 and half years session jam due to negligence of authorities.”
Earlier on Monday, President Abdul Hamid said commercial courses (evening courses) are turning public universities into business institutions and disrupting the atmosphere in campuses.
He noted that there are some teachers who are reluctant to take classes of regular courses but are very serious when it comes to evening and diploma courses, and taking classes at private universities.
The Chancellor said also said, “It’s happening because they get cash benefits from these private universities. But remember, the [public] universities are run with taxpayers’ money. So, you have to be accountable to the people.”
Although some universities announced to stop evening courses immediately after the UGC directive, most of the universities did not give any formal announcement till now.
Contacted, Chittagong University Vice Chancellor Professor Shirin Akhter refused to comment in this issue whereas Jahangirnagar University VC Professor Farzana Islam and Rajshahi University VC M Abdus Sobhan did not receive the call.
Moreover, it has known from different sources that all the public universities will shut their evening courses but the students who have already enrolled can complete the ongoing programmes.
